


Sometimes

by ThoroughlySnarky



Category: Undertale
Genre: Gen, Timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 17:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5299259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoroughlySnarky/pseuds/ThoroughlySnarky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Gaster remembers who he once was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes

Sometimes. Sometimes he was a good father.

He would read his sons stories about a bunny. He would show his eldest old star charts from the surface and he would play the human in his youngest’s game. He would laugh at jokes and tuck them in at night and comfort them when other children were mean or when their powers went out of control.

He loved his sons, unconditionally, no matter if they were his by birth, creation, or adoption. They were his sons.

He would be proud, in those timelines, when his eldest got his degree, or when his youngest started training to be in the royal guard. He would spend time with his friends, laughing over ramen with his anime obsessed assistant, talking with the bartender about how difficult teenage children were, or having tea with the king. And he would try to go home every night (even if sometimes he fell asleep at work instead.)

Other times he was the oldest brother.

He might’ve been a bit forgetful, but his little brother was alway there to pick up the slack and watch out for their hyperactive youngest brother. He wasn’t the greatest brother, sometimes they even fought. But eventually it would work out and the three of them would watch old human movies while eating takeout.

Because they were his brothers and he loved them, even when he thought they were annoying. Because it didn’t matter where they came from, only that they were together.

He’d celebrate when his brother joined him in his lab and he’d tease their youngest brother about being taken under the wing of the Captain. He’d still spent time with his assistant, but sometimes Sans was there as well, guzzling ketchup while watching anime. He didn’t always go home, and their youngest brother rarely saw him, but he always had a place to go home to.

~~Ǫr ̶ma̕yb͝e̢ t́h̕at’s wha̵t͡ ͡he͏ wa̴nt̷ed t͏ơ ͡think ̡s̴in͜ce he͞’d̀ ̷ab͘a͞ndon̷e̕d̡ h͠is͜ s̵i̷b͟li͞n͝gs ҉lo͝n̶g be͢for͝e͠ ͞h͞e̕ ̀got͠ to se͠e̛ ̕the͞m̵ g̀row.̸  
~~

Timelines like these he cherished. The connection to family, they were held close to his heart. Or ̢m̷áy͠b̧e he fea̕re̸d̵ them. ~~~~

But then he was the creator, distant and sometimes cruel.

He’d made them in a lab, with magic and human corpses. They weren’t anything more than useful specimens. The smaller one was intelligent, so he used him in the lab. Sometimes an assistant that wasn’t afraid of him or against his will, only cooperating because he wanted to protect his ‘brother’. But the other was useless, not worth keeping around for anything more than to help control the magical outburst from the smaller one.

Or maybe he was cruel enough to use DETERMINATION on the other one and watch as the smaller melted into it as they tried to save it. Pathetic. Or he’d experiment on them in other ways, trying to recreate human souls within them. He put them through so much pain in those timelines (and he didn’t care).

Sometimes in those timelines he could feel the blue magic pulse around his soul as he fell into the core.

Other times he was the mentor, old and clumsy, a recluse but a friend.

The eldest was his assistant, he only knew that he had a younger brother because he was the only one of his assistants and students to regularly leave the lab. Or maybe he did know the younger brother, just not very well. He’d go to dinner over at the eldest’s house and tell science puns over the little one’s head.

Or maybe the younger knew nothing about what his brother did and that was why he always left the lab. But he loved the way that his assistant would gush over what they were working on. Or maybe he would be to lazy to do much of anything at all.

He was respected by his assistant and treated as a teacher. He was an old friend and that was it.

These were the common timelines. There were thousands, perhaps millions of them. He couldn’t tell them apart anymore they seemed to blend together in his memory. An͢d ̕h̕e͡ j͞ust ͠w̵a̡nted͟ ̀it͞ t͡o st̶op͞.

But sometimes he was human. Sometimes he was made out of stardust. Sometimes he was a mage. Sometimes he was a zombie. Sometimes his soul split in two when he hit the core and only his memory entered the void. There were so many timelines, he felt as if he had been anything he could’ve been.

Once he’d been a lover. An old warrior, tired and drawn. A thing that had to be put down. An angel whose wings crumbled and turned to dust. A time traveller hoping to find a way home. A protector. A king. Fath͞er̶b͢r̕o͞th̡e͜r͢t͝o͡rmen͜to̷ŕteac҉h͡e̶r.̷ K͘il҉l͜èr̡ _kįll̛e̛r ~~kìl͝l͠er̢~~_. He’d been everything.

But now.

 

̛H̻͓͈͎͜ḙ̡̩̰̮͇̭̤ ̪͉̻͔̪̬̤w̶̫̱̟͖͕a̲͟s҉͖͎̪̙̰ ̟̰ͅn͝o̯t̩̥͘h̼̖̗͢i̦͍̣̪̯̻n̙͕̮̝ͅg̡͚̺͙͕͚̟̻.̺̯̺̮͕͞  
̯͈ͅ


End file.
